Tunnel underneath the Vistula River. Poland

Construction of a tunnel under the Vistula River in Gdansk (Poland). This is a strategic project located in the near vicinity of the Baltic Sea’s major deepwater port and considered Eastern Europe’s mega-hub. This infrastructure includes 2.4 km of highway, a total of 1.1 km of which were excavated using a hydroshield TBM 12.6 m in diameter.

Worthy of special note is the fact that OHL has become the first Spanish company to build a tunnel underneath the navigation channel of a river using a hydroshield tunnel-boring machine 12.60 meters in diameter outside of Spain. Similarly, this is the first road tunnel built in Poland and the largest tunnel built in the country with a tunnel-boring machine. This tunnel has an interior diameter of 11 m and houses a two-lane carriageway, each lane 3.5 m in width, with 50 cm and 70 cm berms and 2 sidewalks 1 m in width.

Awards and recognitions

During construction of both tunnels under the River Vistula, OHL’s team has received numerous awards, such as first prize in the 2012 and 2014 Safe Construction competition, granted by the Regional Employment Inspectorate in the Polish region of Pomerania; first prize in the urban works category, at the VII edition of the Potencia Prizes for Public Works Machinery and Civil Engineering 2013, held by the Potencia magazine and the Spanish publishing group TPI, recognizing its application of innovating, efficient and environmentally-friendly solutions. Furthermore, one month following its having been opened to the public – on April 24, 2016 – the Polish Construction Engineers and Technicians Association (PZITB) in conjunction with the Main Inspection Office for the Construction Industry and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction awarded the title of “Construction Project of the Year 2015”.